Lawyers acting on behalf of Charlie Shrem, the bitcoin
entrepreneur caught up in the downfall of deep web drug
marketplace Silk Road, have written a surreal sentencing memo
that describes the 25-year-old as a "sacred guardian."

Had the Greeks known of crypto-currencies and of certain
provincial Brooklyn neighborhoods, a tragedy could have been
written about a boy who, through Dionysian passion and a little
hubris, helped nurture an idea—bitcoin—that was new to the world,
and that could change how the world—the whole world—passed value
from one person to another.

This new idea would take the boy from from his neighborhood. The
boy would see himself as an almost sacred guardian of this new
idea, charged with the awesome responsibility of bringing it out
of the darkness and into the light of widespread, mainstream
acceptance. However, in the chaos of developing the new idea, he
would drop his guard, and allow the dark forces to caste it in
shadow.

He would be to blame. He would be viewed not as its protector but
as its destroyer, the destroyer of the one thing—the idea—he
loved most. He would be sent back to his provincial neighborhood
and, for a while, would live in his parents’ basements, all the
while dreaming of the time he could return to his lifelong task
of helping—of being just one of many—to bring this new idea
further into light.

The rest of the story remains to be written.

During his trial, Shrem tried to convince the judge that he was
better off outside, helping educate people about cryptocurrency.
He told the judge, "Bitcoin is my baby, it's my whole
world and my whole life, it's what I was put on this earth to do.
I need to be out there."